Poor Ducks

[dudden22]

So apparently this man ran over the ducks several times and then got out of his car and started beating them.

Security tapes show man killing ducks

By Chuck Carroll

Mercury News


The chilling crime was captured on grainy security-camera tape: a man in a small car in the wee hours of the morning deliberately running over and killing 10 ducks who lived in a pond at a popular carwash in Campbell.

Employees, patrons and neighbors of the business -- who treated the fowl almost like family -- called the crime unspeakably cruel, and were mourning the loss this week. And while the tapes aren't sharp -- police can't even read the car's license plate -- investigators hope that images released Thursday will help them catch the man they want to charge with animal cruelty.

Shortly after midnight last Friday, four security cameras at the Delta Queen Classic Car Wash, 981 E. Hamilton Ave., captured images of a driver running over ducks five or six times in a 16-minute rampage. The driver also got out of his car several times to chase the birds -- some of them ducklings -- and appeared to grab one or two by the neck and throw them against or into his car.
Mike Davis, who manages the Delta Queen, said about a dozen of the animals survived the attack. Most of them are descendants of Cheese and Quackers, a pair that were dropped off by a customer in 1972. ``There have been ducks here ever since the day it opened,'' he said.

Kimble Simpson is one of two employees who regularly take care of the ducks, and he had a soft spot for a big white male he named Rocco. Because he and his mate were recent drop-offs, they pretty much were rejected by the rest of the flock. Rocco always stood his ground, and didn't run away from the others.

Rocco and his mate were the first to die. The person responsible, Simpson said, was ``heartless.''

``First he went after the slowest ones, and then he went after the babies,'' he said.

The ducks were familiar to most everyone in the neighborhood. Occasionally, the birds would leave their pond and start to waddle across busy Hamilton Avenue or Bascom Avenue.

Invariably, Campbell police Capt. Russ Patterson said, traffic would come to a halt, and people would shoo the ducks back to safety.

Patterson said police are determined to arrest the person responsible.

``It's pretty serious,'' he said.

Felony animal cruelty is punishable by up to three years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and the cases ignite strong passions in animal lovers. In Santa Cruz County last April, Steven Jackson was ordered to serve a year in jail and three years' probation for killing a puppy with a golf club.

In Santa Clara County, Andrew Burnett got three years in prison after throwing a bichon frisé dog named Leo into traffic during a road-rage incident near the San Jose airport in 2000.

On Thursday, Chief Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu said prosecutors take animal-cruelty cases seriously because they know there is a ``definite connection'' between abuse of animals and violence against people.

``This is beyond mere neglect, and we will vigorously pursue anyone who maliciously abuses, maims or kills animals,'' she said.

Assistant community service officer Paul Chamberlin has been assigned to the Campbell case. He can be reached at (408) 866-2121. Rich Shipman of the Campbell Police Department said investigators had hoped to enhance the video and get a better look at the driver and the car's license plate, but the quality is too poor to work with.

The license appears to be a California vanity plate with four characters, a space, and two more characters, Patterson said.

The car appears to be a late '80s or early '90s red two-door Acura Integra, or something similar. A small, rectangular sticker was visible on the bottom left corner of the rear window.

The driver appears to be in his late teens or early 20s, with short, dark brown hair. He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.